Interaction Tracking Best Practices

Interactions are the date-based record of every touch your organization has with a supporter: a phone call, a mailing, an email, a text, or attendance at an event. Logging them in DonorSnap builds a shared history that staff, board members, and future employees can use to understand a donor, target follow-up communications, and spot trends, such as people who keep attending free events but haven’t given yet. Because every organization tracks information a little differently, this webinar presents options and recommended practices rather than one required setup.

In this webinar we cover:

• What interactions are and why tracking them matters
• Adding an interaction with the Date, Type, and Comment fields
• The difference between the Interaction tab and the Notes tab
• Customizing interaction types under Maintenance > Site Setup > Field and Screen Customization
• Logging emails and texts automatically when you send them from DonorSnap
• Logging mailings and outside email campaigns with Processing > Interaction Mass Update
• Running the Interaction Report and Notes Report
• Tracking mailings on the contact screen with a user-defined field instead

Related: Moves Management Training Webinar

Quick recap

The trainer began by explaining why interaction tracking matters: a dated history of every call, mailing, and event lets staff and board members understand a donor at a glance and target follow-ups. She demonstrated adding an interaction on a contact’s Interaction tab and compared interactions (500-character comments, kept short) with notes (5,000+ characters, for personal details). She customized interaction types under Maintenance, then showed that emails and texts sent from DonorSnap log themselves automatically, while physical mailings and outside email platforms like Constant Contact are logged in bulk with Interaction Mass Update using a DataMiner Platinum report. She covered when to use Excel Import for lists that didn’t come from DonorSnap, ran the Interaction Report, and closed with a contact-screen alternative for organizations that don’t need dated history.

Summary

Adding an Interaction
Go to Community > Contacts, open the contact, select the Interaction tab, and click Add New Interaction. Fill in the Date, Type, and Comment. Best practice: include your name and the name of the person you spoke with, since household records often list two people.

Interactions vs. Notes
Interaction comments hold 500 characters; notes hold 5,000+. Keep interactions to one short line per touch (“Mailing: Save the Date”) and use notes for details worth remembering, like a donor’s kids’ names or a family illness. Both can be searched and reported on.

Customizing Interaction Types
DonorSnap includes five types: Attended an Event, Email, Mailing, Personal Contact, and Phone Call. Administrators can add or delete unused types under Maintenance > Site Setup > Field and Screen Customization. Keep types broad and put event names in the comment so the drop-down stays short.

Board Member Access
Administrators can turn tabs and menus on or off per user, so board members logging calls can see just the contact screen and Interaction tab.

Automatic Interactions from Emails and Texts
Mass Email Campaigns, Automatic Task Manager (ATM) emails, and texts sent from DonorSnap can create a record for each recipient automatically. Choose an interaction (date and subject line) or a note (full email body).

Interaction Mass Update for Mailings and Outside Email
For postcards, letters, or email sent through Constant Contact or Mailchimp, build the recipient list as a DataMiner Platinum report, send your mailing, then go to Processing > Interaction Mass Update. Select the date, type, batch, and a comment, and DonorSnap logs an interaction for everyone in the batch.

Lists from Outside DonorSnap
Keep everyone in DonorSnap whenever possible. If you mailed an outside list, use Excel Import for 50 or more records, or enter interactions by hand (try the Mass Entry tool) for fewer than 50.

Running the Interaction Report
Under Reports > Interaction Report, choose a date range and interaction types. Results are subtotaled by type, making it easy to show your board how much outreach happened. A Notes Report is also available.

Alternative: Tracking Mailings on the Contact Screen
If you don’t need dated history, add a multiple-select user-defined field (for example, “Mailings”) on the contact screen and check off what each contact received. The trade-off: you lose Interaction Mass Update and need an Excel Import for bulk updates.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between interactions and notes in DonorSnap? Interactions are short, dated records of each touch, limited to 100 characters. Notes hold up to 5,000 characters and are for personal details you want to remember for future conversations. Each contact can have unlimited interaction and note records.

How do I log a mailing for hundreds of contacts at once? Use Processing > Interaction Mass Update. Build a DataMiner Platinum report of the recipients, then select that batch, the date, the Mailing type, and a comment. DonorSnap creates an interaction for every contact in the batch.

Do emails sent from DonorSnap create interaction records automatically? Yes. Mass Email Campaigns and Task Manager emails can create an interaction (date and subject line) or a note (full email body) for each recipient. Texts sent from DonorSnap can do the same.

How do I track emails I send through Constant Contact or Mailchimp? Use Interaction Mass Update. After sending the email, select the same DataMiner Platinum batch you exported to your email platform and log the date, Email type, and a comment.

How do I add or change interaction types? An administrator can edit them under Maintenance > Site Setup > Field and Screen Customization, on page 2 of the field list. Types can be deleted only if no interactions use them.

Should I add each event as its own interaction type? Usually not. Use a broad type like Attended an Event and put the event name in the comment, or add a custom Event Name field to the Interaction tab.

How do I run a report of all interactions for my board? Go to Reports > Interaction Report, choose a date range and the interaction types to include. The report is subtotaled by type.

Can board members log calls without seeing the whole database? Yes. Administrators can limit a user to the contact screen and Interaction tab, hiding donations and other menus.

Related Pages:

Moves Management Training Webinar
Mass Email Campaigns Training Webinar
Excel Import Training Webinar
DMP 101: Introduction
Welcoming and Retaining First Time Donors Training Webinar